Page 56 of The Perfect Betrayal

“What is it?” Monica asked.

“Here’s what I propose,” Jessie said. “You remove the rag from Joel’s mouth. He describes what happened that night with Heather, in full, without excuses. I will record him on my phone. In exchange for his honesty, you let him live. Then he faces responsibility for his actions. Unfortunately, Monica, so will you. But I get the sense that you’ve made your peace with that. That’s one option.”

“Or?” Monica said.

“Or,” Jessie continued, “you remove the rag, and Joel declines to be honest about the events of that night. He denies responsibility entirely, or tries to pass the buck, or just refuses to say anything at all.”

“What happens then?” Monica wondered.

“Then,” Jessie said slowly and with total conviction, “I imagine you’d kill him.”

Other than the waves lopping up against the hull outside, there was total silence. Monica’s jaw had dropped open in shock.Joel’s eyes were on the verge of popping out of his skull. Jessie went on.

"I can't really do anything to stop you," she explained. "If you slit his throat, no one would find it hard to believe that I tried to talk you down and failed. You were just too far gone. He'd bleed out, and those wild eyes I'm looking at would go dull forever. I'd take you into custody, and you'd spend the rest of your life in prison. And that would be that. You'd never know the truth, and he'd be dead. That feels like a lose-lose for both of you, but I'd be okay with it. The question is, would the two of you?"

Cisco tried to spit the rag out.

“I think he wants to say something,” Jessie noted.

Monica yanked the rag out of his mouth. He coughed for several seconds, then swallowed a few times. When he spoke, his voice was hoarse.

“How do I know she won’t kill me anyway after I talk?”

Jessie shrugged.

“I guess you don’t,” she said. “But I’d imagine that after three years of injustice, Monica would like to finally see someone pay for what was done to her sister. I’m hoping that her need for the world to acknowledge Heather in a court of law would trump her desire to gut you. Plus, in my experience, men like you don’t fare too well in prison. That means that your suffering will continue, rather than just ending here on this boat. That should offer her some solace.”

“Then why should I say anything?” he snarled. “If my only choices are die now or get raped in in prison for the next fifty years, that’s no choice at all.”

"There's always the chance that you could beat the charges," Jessie proposed. "You could claim that your confession was coerced. Maybe a jury will see it your way, and you'll walk free. But if you don't talk now, you'll never know."

Cisco closed his eyes in concentration. He had a big decision to make. Behind him, Monica had an appalled expression on her face, clearly horrified at the prospect of him escaping punishment after all this.

Jessie smiled back at her and shook her head, as if to silently say, “don’t worry, that’s not going to happen.” Of course, she couldn’t really make that promise. Anything could happen at trial. But admitting that in this moment felt counterproductive. Cisco opened his eyes.

“Aren’t you supposed to be a law enforcement officer?” he balked. “How can you just stand by and let her commit murder?”

“We’re well past that,” Jessie said coldly. “You should worry less about what I should be doing and more about whether you ever want to do anything ever again.”

Cisco went quiet. After a few seconds, Monica lowered the knife slightly and moved off to the side so that she could see the man’s face.

She was still too far away for Jessie to get to her before she’d be able to lift the knife to his neck again. But that might be a moot point. Jessie wasn’t sure if she even wanted to stop her. In this moment, it appeared that Joel Cisco would decide how this played out.

“Turn on the recorder,” Monica whispered.

Jessie pulled out her phone and hit record.

“It’s on,” she said.

Monica turned her attention back to Cisco. “Go ahead.”

Jessie looked at her phone, watching the seconds tick by. When it reached 14, Cisco finally opened his mouth to speak.

CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR

“We didn’t mean for it to happen,” Cisco said, his voice quiet and his eyes on the ground. “We’ve had tons of parties on our boats over the years and no one reacted like she did. I don’t know if she was high or crazy or what, but she was out of control.”

“What does that mean?” Jessie asked.

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